Battle looming over immigrant driver permits

Updated 11:09 pm, Tuesday, April 30, 2013

AUSTIN — The House is girding to take on a potential political lightning rod: allowing immigrants in the country illegally to obtain specialized driving permits.

A Dallas Democrat has teamed up with two powerful Republicans to craft a compromise version of a bill that would give undocumented immigrants the ability to drive legally in Texas and obtain insurance — only after they submit to a criminal background check, fingerprints and prove state residency.

The proposal is being sold by supporters as anything other than a tool to expand the rights of people residing in Texas illegally. They caution that new a form of driving permit would be granted, not an actual driver license.

Rather, they are pitching it as a law enforcement measure to fix an unintended consequence of a law passed last session that requires people to prove their citizenship to renew a driver license.

That 2011 measure has left undocumented immigrants who drove legally in Texas for decades unable to renew their licenses or buy insurance, a problem that has caused major headaches for law enforcement officials across the state.

“It's good for law enforcement. It's good for security,” said Rep. Roberto Alonzo, who authored the measure, House Bill 3206. “We have already gone past the immigration debate and now we're into the law enforcement debate.”

“On the surface, this bill may have appear to have merit, but there could be unintended consequences,” a statement from the Sheriff's Office read. “Therefore, it is premature to take a position on this bill.”

The proposal's fate now rests squarely on its branding effort: Can supporters convince enough Republicans the bill has nothing to do with immigration and everything to do with ensuring drivers on Texas' roads are carrying insurance?

“It's a matter of framing it the right way,” said Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, who's a coauthor of the bill. “Whatever their legal status is in the country, this doesn't change that. It doesn't make them legal. It just says they can buy insurance.”

Last week, the measure breezed out of committee, with former House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, the lone dissenting vote. It could hit the House floor next week.

Supporters still need to muster more votes to secure its passage out of the House. And with legislative deadlines quickly approaching, the jockeying for votes is well under way.

On Monday, Alonzo turned in a list to the House clerk with new names pledging support for the bill. He said he has secured votes from 55 Democrats and three Republicans, leaving him 18 shy of being able to send the bill to the Senate.

Some Republicans remain staunchly opposed to the bill. Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, said that, although supporters have made some convincing arguments, he still sees the proposal as “primarily an immigration situation.”

“The whole premise that the state of Texas is going to provide to people who are not even here lawfully a state-issued permit for what is really a privilege is contrary to ... how we've traditionally done things here in Texas,” he said.

Backers are acutely aware of the volatile optics the bill presents for their colleagues. Voting in favor of anything related to undocumented immigrants — even if the proposal is cast as a tool to help police — could electrify the far-right. That is why they want to remove the topic of immigration from the debate.

That will prove tough. Over the last decade, Alonzo has filed several bills aimed at helping such immigrants obtain Texas driver licenses.

His bill this session started out the same way, but was amended to focus on specially designed driving permit certificates after working with two influential Republicans.

Williams was the author of the 2011 law that required driver-license applicants to prove legal status. In a statement, he said the bill balances the state's “national security concerns with state road safety priorities” and emphasized the permit can't be used for anything other than driving.

“The resident permit must clearly state that it is not a federally recognized document, meaning that it is not intended to provide the user access to a federal building, including an airport,” Williams said.

The bill is widely viewed by pro-immigration groups like the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund as a positive step forward. Those groups, however, are concerned with who can get access to state records listing undocumented immigrants applying for permits and the potential for those carrying the new permits to be racially profiled.

Hard-line immigration groups, on the other hand, are casting the measure as a “travesty of justice,” saying it would, essentially, neuter the state's identification law.

“It's an ugly, ugly thing,” said Maria Martinez, executive director of the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas, which advocates for stricter immigration controls. “All they are doing is trying to appease the people who profit off of cheap labor, the insurance companies, builders and landscapers.”